Artist Talk: John Miller

John Miller is a photographer and a self-described ‘sympathetic observer’ of anti-war, civil rights, anti-apartheid, anti-nuclear and Māori political protests. He has captured some momentous events and moments in the struggle for peace. His work in Direct Democracy at MUMA, Tour Scrums – Protesting Black and Blue 2007, documents the 1981 Springbok Tour of New Zealand.

In this discussion of his work Miller places his project within the context of a larger, planned documentation of this tumultuous event by New Zealand’s photographic community, and the various uses made of these images in the immediate aftermath of the Tour. The discussion also relates the 1981 events to the broader history of New Zealand protest against Apartheid sport, and some pertinent Australian connections to this history.

John Miller, Ngaitewake ki te Tuawhenua hapu of Ngapuhi, Tauwhara marae, Waimate North, Bay of Islands, was born in Auckland in 1950.